Friday, February 26, 2016

Amy Yang heads crowded leaderboard atLPGA Thailand

FROM THE LPGA WEBSITEBy AMY ROGERS

A day after players were raving about the conditions in
Thailand, firmer and faster greens made for a much tougher test on day
two of the Honda LPGA Thailand at Chonburi.Grouped together in the final group on Friday, first round leader
Lexi Thompson, Q Baek and defending champion Amy Yang took turns atop
the leaderboard. Thompson and Baek shared the lead for much of the front
nine, but it was Yang who ended the day atop the leaderboard. “I struggled a little bit on the front, two bogeys straight,
but I think I stayed patient well, got through it well. I'm happy with
today's round,” Yang said of her three-under-par 69 which contained birdies at the fourth, ninth, 10th, 12th and 15th, offset by back-to-back bogeys at the fifth and sixth.

While her playing partners both dropped shots on the inward nine,
Yang went bogey-free on the back nine tto lead
by one at 9-under par 135. Q Baek (65-71) is one back of Yang, T-2 at 8-under par 136 alongside Jessica Korda (70-66) and first-round leader Lexi Thomson (64-72).Baek had an up and down
day that resulted in a 1-under par 71. Thompson's second round was about getting up and down. After
an unlucky bounce with her approach to the par 4, 11th she was able to save par from behind the green, but wasn’t so lucky at the 13th and 17th
holes, where she left her chips short and then ran her second one well
past the hole as the greens continued to firm up Friday. After her
approach to the 18th hole rolled off the front side of the
green, Thompson managed to get up and down for birdie to finish even for
the day. She’s T-2 at 8-under par.“It's just pin positions, and the ridges on these greens, you can get
some tough pins, especially with how fast the greens are, so you have
to make sure you hit the fairways and get the spin that you need going
into the greens,” Thompson said after the round. “But it's a tough
course, especially with the fast greens. There's a lot of run-ups and a
lot of ridges.”Also T-2 is Jessica Korda, who, despite tough pin placements and fast
greens, matched Haru Nomura for the low round of the day by draining a
12-footer for eagle on 18 to card a 6-under par, 66 on Friday. She’s
making her first start this week after taking some time off following
the Coates Golf Championship, spending time with friends Michelle Wie
and Austin Ernst and working with instructor David Whelan.“It was nice. I took like three days off after Ocala because the
first two weeks it felt like super jammed. Everything was really jammed
in. So I just took a couple days off and then went back,” said Korda. “We've just been working on keeping my tempo kind of slower. I kind of
tend to rush, try and speed everything up, and just really trying to
keep my tempo and keep myself happy and calm.” Haru Nomura, Chella Choi, In Gee Chun, and Ha Na Jang round out the
top-5 at 6-under par. Eight players are within three-strokes of the lead
and all are winners on the LPGA Tour. Currently T-9 at 5-under par, Xi Yu Lin has had a special week. Lin
celebrated her birthday on Thursday and received a belated gift on
Friday when she made an ace at the par 3, 16th hole. Lin had
no idea she had holed her tee shot until she made her way up to the
green and realised her ball was in the hole and that she had won the car
sitting behind the tee. “When I walked off the tee, I just didn't believe. I was thinking
they were kidding, so I didn't really look at the car, but it's funny,
like then on the 17th hole I see the group behind coming in, and I was
thinking, okay, don't touch my car, that's my car,” Lin said after her
round. It was the second ace in Tournament play for Lin, who carded a 4-under par, 68 on Friday.